The soaga Afolabi

Tag: greatness

Towards the end of his life, Apostle Paul made an incredible statement not many people are able to make in their lifetime. He said “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith” (2Tim4:7). That’s an example of a man who was fulfilled with the life he lived during his active years on this planet.

So the question is- how do we get to that fulfilling point where it’s no longer scary to face death? Where we can really say that we have done all that needs to be done and we have become all we were created to be? How do we get to that place where it is certain that the world has nothing else to offer us and we also have nothing left to offer the world? How do we find fulfilment?

In my opinion, fulfilment is all about pursuits. Life is like a standard 400m metre Olympic race course. We all are in this race not necessarily against other people; sometimes it’s just a race between your realities, potentials, and opposing possibilities; a race against life itself. (Your reality is where you are now, your possibilities is what you can become; good or bad, depending on how well you run the race; or if you choose not to even run at all. See next paragraph)

In life, its either you are chasing something or something would be chasing you. A man who is not in pursuit of success will have failure catch up with him. A man who is not interested in greatness only needs to look at his back to see mediocrity trying to catch up with him; a man who is not in pursuit of abundant prosperity would have to rub shoulders with poverty. That’s just how life is designed. There is no point questioning it, its best you just get to running your own race.

But you see, there is a way to go about our pursuits; there is a way to run your race.

2 Tim2:5 puts it this way: “Also if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules”. From this verse of scripture, we can refer to the prize as fulfilment. Thus, there is a right way to find success, greatness, prosperity and fulfilment and there is also an incorrect route to reaching the end. Thirdly, there is also a way that guarantees that you don’t finish the race at all.

Here is what I mean.

Life is like a complex system of greed, need, contentment, and ambition. One has to draw his lines between greed and need; contentment and ambition. It is how well that line is drawn that decides if a man will end up being fulfilled or not.

I will not go into definition of terms but take a look at this.

Our goals/targets/dreams can fall into needs or ‘greeds’. Greed will help you reach targets and goals but it will take you through the wrong routes. It will push you to a world of envy, jealousy, crime, hatred, loneliness etc. Our goals are genuine needs and our dreams are indeed valid. There is absolutely nothing wrong in going after them. But however important, is the way we go about them.

Does achieving your goals come at the expense of other people? Does the pursuit of your dream take away your peace and rest? Does the success and progress of people around you bother you to a point of envy and jealousy? Do the things that make you happy come at the price of the things that make you sad? If your answers are yes, then your goals have turned into greed and not needs.

Greed can never be met. Or better said, a goal greedily met can never bring fulfilment. Rather, it will create a bigger hole within your heart longing for more of that thing or anything else. The accomplishment of one greed will ultimately lead to the desire for another.

It is important to say that people tend to move faster at times when they are greedy. It will look as if they are doing better than others because they are cutting corners and using illegal shortcuts ….but it’s eventually always too costly. Usually more than they can afford.

However, when our goals and desires remain harmless needs; needs we are only interested in getting through appropriate and decent means, then we can reach them and also have with them fulfilment that can’t be taken away from us. Real joy and happiness comes when we get the right things the right way. But you see, the only way your goals will remain at the level of need and not greed is when you have contentment in your heart.

Contentment is all about being satisfied with what you have and where you are. It takes recognition of how far you have come and an inner assurance of how far you’d still go to remain contented with where you are or what you have.

The mark of contentment is gratitude. A man who’s grateful is content. He knows that grace has brought him thus far and that grace will take him further. It is a virtue that is built also on the foundations of patience and faith.

A thin line exists between contentment and mediocre satisfaction of easy comfort (which is also known as a lack of ambition). The feelings are similar. Both send signals of fulfilment down your spine. But the thing is, when that feeling is not connected to the foundations of gratitude, patience and faith which we talked about, then you should recognize that you have left the realm of contentment and are entered into that of mediocrity and lack of ambition.

In other words, if you are a satisfied grumbler and complainer, or a satisfied risk averse and fearful person, then you are not a content man; you only simply lack ambition.

That’s how to never find true fulfilment because you’d never reach all that you were created to reach or become all you were created to be. You’ll only be basking in pseudo-fulfilment which is nothing compared to true fulfilment. We need that holy dissatisfaction like Apostle Paul had in Philippians 3:13-14 where he said: “I have not achieved it,but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us”.

That kind of dissatisfaction that is not based on greed but rather that is equipped by faith and a sense of responsibility towards all we are created to be; will push you out of your comfort zone of mediocrity and make you reach out to the good possibilities that still lies ahead. Don’t forget, this dissatisfaction is to be co-habited with true contentment.

In conclusion,

Life can be likened to a race; there is a starting line and a finishing line. We can find fulfilment at the end of the road, but we can also enjoy the journey to that place. Holy dissatisfaction or ambition is what will keep you in pursuit and guarantee that you finish the course, on your heels reaching for what is achievable, but contentment will keep you happy all the way and make sure that you strive lawfully to gain the prize. (see 2Tim2:5)

All these things are interwoven: Greed, goals, needs, contentment, fulfillment, dissatisfaction, ambition, mediocrity etc. The wisdom to blend it all together neatly, putting everything in its place and drawing the lines where they need to be drawn is what separates the men who become fulfilled and those who don’t.

It is my prayer that you find the wisdom to draw your own lines, blend your juice neatly and enjoy the taste of fulfillment that comes from it.

Is the perfect and ideal life really an unattainable fantasy? Well I believe the answer to that would be based on our individual definitions of what the perfect life is.

To me, the perfect life isn’t the life without problems and challenges, but rather it is the life of a man who has learnt to overcome them when they come his way. Is it a life without flaws? I don’t think so. I believe it’s the life of a man who is consistently improving on himself and besting his life daily. In short the perfect life is not the one situated in a perfect world for such world remains evidently physically un-existent today, but rather it is the life of a man who is committed to being his best self daily.

By my definition, is the perfect life an attainable goal? Yes, most certainly. Not only is it attainable, it is a noble pursuit.

We live in an imperfect world and the imperfection of this world tends to rub itself on us from time to time. Nobody is born a thief, a murderer, a harlot, a liar, or a fraudster. People who become this were influenced at some point or the other. The negative influences from society and media makes it difficult for us to be our best self.

Change they say is inevitable. You can’t fight it; it will always occur. Wherever change isn’t found, death has found an abode. however, automatic change I have come to find, is never positive. The only change that ordinarily occurs with time is decay. So the best way to relate with change is to be proactive about it. As life is trying to rub all its imperfection on you, you should also be putting efforts to find your perfection back. There is no getting defensive about this by attempting to ‘avoid’ being corrupted by the world’s negative influences. That has never worked and it never will. The best form of defence is attack!

So just like clothes we wear, so also are norms and bad habits we pick up. The same way we can decide to change clothes, we can also decide to change habits. We can choose what we become just as we can choose what we wear. No character came with us from the womb, we picked them all up thereafter.

The pursuit of a good life is also a pursuit to meet needs; material and non material needs. Some of those needs are necessities while some others are luxuries. As you go about them, it’s important to ensure that we don’t allow society’s influence on us turn our needs to greed and like earlier said, this we need to be proactive about .

A wise man named Rajinikanth said ‘whether you have a maruti or a BMW, the road remains the same. Whether you travel economy class or business class, our destination doesn’t change. Whether you have a titan or a Rolex, the time is the same. Whether you have apple, Samsung or lava, people who call you remain the same.
There is nothing wrong in dreaming a luxurious life. What needs to be taken care of is to not let the need become greed because needs can always be met but greed can never be fulfilled’.

the concluding part of this would be posted soon. watch this space for it.

I am from a country in which a poor boy several years ago was christened Goodluck at his birth. Strange name right? Today, that boy serves as the president of our country. When he told us his story, he attributes part of his success today to that little stroke of luck. As a boy he had no shoes, as a man he rides a presidential jet. His name has truly been a prophecy for his life. Little wonder today we have had many more parents name their child Goodluck because they are also searching for that stroke of luck that would make all the difference in their life.

Of course, not all these children bearing that name today will be presidents tomorrow. Moreover, President Jonathan was not the only person to have been named Goodluck the year he was born. Where are the other Goodlucks today? You can’t really blame our people though; who doesn’t want to be the father of the president of the giant of Africa?

I’d be discussing luck today and I’ll take my observation from Hollywood stories to drive home a point. Let me start by painting the regular scenarios we find in movies.

The good-guy-bad-guy fight. This is usually reserved for the last part of the movie. Almost always, the bad guy is usually more than enough for the good guy. So he beats him up pretty bad such that the good guy is bleeding all over. Then at that instance that he is about to deal the good guy the last blow, the good guy manages to reach a gun that is left with just 1 bullet which was some time ago out of reach but now that he is about to die is now somehow near enough for his dramatic full arm stretch to reach. And so before the bad guy can finish him off, he gets the gun, shoots the bad guy dead and the good guy wins.

My next scenario is from the amazing spider man 2 movie released earlier this year; two planes were just about to collide into each other because electrode who is the bad guy here had tampered with the electricity in the city. The planes were flying blindly because they could not communicate with the control room at the airport and Just when they were about to collide, someone somewhere pushed a button just as someone else somewhere else connected some wires together and that led to the electricity being restored back in the city. If all that process had been delayed by a fraction of a second, the two planes would have ran into each other and spider-man would not have saved the day.

Or, you must have seen instances in action movies where several bad guys are shooting at just one good guy and then they all miss. The bullets would be seen to literarily touch everything else apart from the good guy and then with just 1 round of ammunition, the good guy kills all his enemies.

Then there is the common classic bad guy error in which he has the good guy cornered into a place and when he ought to just finish him off once and for all, he begins to tell a tale nobody is interested in #story4thegods. and while he is still explaining away his plans and un-gotten victory, the good guy gets some weapon somewhere and strikes him dead.

I could give countless of similar scenarios from Hollywood movies I’ve seen. The end is always similar. The good guy wins but then when you look at it closely, you can see that they always attribute his victory to some stroke of luck. I mean those bad guys might be wearing dark shades but they are certainly not all blind. If that is not luck, I wonder what it is.

Every action hero or movie star character has his or her own story of luck. Of how they were close to losing and then suddenly they won.

However, life funnily is very different from hollywood stories where there are always happy endings because not everyone always gets lucky. In real life, good guys die, planes crash, full sighted people don’t all miss their target at the same time, and bad guys don’t talk before shooting (they do it after the kill), people stay divorced, and some things you find kevin hart do won’t be seen as funny but rather stupid. Reason like I said before again is that not everyone gets lucky.

Luck I have come to see only finds those who needs it the least. There are plenty people who have been playing the lottery for years and have never stroked a jackpot even once. Even Hollywood tells such stories. People who hit luck in casinos were usually the un-expectant. It just happened when they weren’t counting on it.

So even though you can count on luck to save you if you were a character in an Hollywood movie, you can’t do so in real life. Mother luck is just so not dependable.

In real life, though not everyone gets lucky; but everyone gets an opportunity. A 1st century roman philosopher named Seneca remarked that luck is what happens when opportunity meets preparation. So what we should be on the lookout for is not luck itself but rather opportunity.

The way you look out for opportunities and make the most of them is to be prepared for them. George clason said that opportunity doesn’t waste time on the unprepared. Remember the story of the 10 virgins and the oil from the bible. The five that got picked were not just lucky. They were prepared for the opportunity of luck.

If you look more intently at even those scenarios I’ve even painted from the Hollywood stories, you’d still see some trace of interplay between opportunity and preparation. Someone did some hard work to get lucky. The truth is that a man who is not prepared for luck won’t even see it when an opportunity presents one to him.

In conclusion, let me just say for the record that I am also a kind of believer in luck. But like Thomas Jefferson observed, I also find that the harder i work, the more i have of it.

Like this:

In joshua 1vs8, the bible made mention of the compound word ‘good success’. Thanks to many charismatic preachers, we have been able to establish that if there is good success, then there must be other types of success.
Failure could be said to be the opposite of success. And if what is good for the goose is also good for the gander, then failure too could be said to have various forms.
Below are some. They could be more and with time I would update the list. But these few should suffice for now and pass a message across.

1. Successful failure:(noun) a man who fails to plan, plans to fail. Such a man succeeds well at his failure.

2. Complete failure: (noun)a man who because he is trying to please everybody fail at his task and also at his desire and intention to please everybody because everybody can’t be pleased.

3. Renowned failure: (noun)a man who is known for his failure by himself and sometimes by others simply because he fails to learn from them and as such, continues to repeat them. Such a man could also be called A fool.

That would be all for now. You could add your own in the comment space below. The message here is to not be any of the stuffs described above.

So plan so you don’t end up being a successful failure, realize all men can’t be pleased so don’t live life solely to please people so you don’t end up a complete failure and learn so you don’t earn yourself a name as a renowned failure.
Succeed!
Soaga Afolabi O.

WARNING: this piece is hazardous to the religious mind of a Christian. Reader’s discretion is advised. 🙂
I have spent the past 5 years of my life as a student of the prestigious and highly religious Obafemi Awolowo Univeristy, ile-ife, Nigeria. About 2 to 3 years of that time, I served as a pastor to a campus fellowship…… a responsibilty I’m pleased to have been trusted with because it gave me a platform to bless people. Those were perhaps the best periods of my life. Having said that, something like what I titled this piece many would reason should not be heard from my lips and many of my friends and colleagues will be deeply surprised and some disappointed I am posting something like this. Despite all, I choose to maintain and stand upon what I’ve said; it isn’t a mistake, I won’t give my life to Christ and if you stick to this a little longer you’ll know why and probably opt to do the same.
First, I searched through the KJV bible (using my e-sword) and shockingly, I did not see ‘literarily’ anywhere in which Jesus asked me to give my life to him (methodology: type give your life to christ( or me) in your bible search engine and scroll through the results if you find any). I searched the epistles again which I personally attach a lot of importance to and disappointingly I still couldn’t find any such request or instruction there. Desperate to be convinced, I opened the highly contemporary THE MESSAGE translation hoping someone would have sneaked in something king James mistakenly omitted but it was still the same story.
All my life as a Christian, I’ve seen and heard many preachers (myself inclusive) ask people to give their lives to Christ. All that while all of them seemed to have used a bible when preaching but now I wonder which bible they got that idea from because I can’t seem to find it in mine.
I then decided to do something else. I replaced the ‘g’ from give with an ‘L’ to get the word live. I re-did my search and this time I came across some scriptures and I’ll love to point your attention to the one below
2Co 5:15 And He died for all, so that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves, but to and for Him Who died and was raised again for their sake.
(AMP) emphasis mine

We are asked to live for him rather than give our lives to him. Now, this is the point I get to say that living for Christ and giving our lives to him pretty much mean the same thing. It’s just plain semantics but I believe it got some people’s attention but before you get at me for that let me now also state and explain the point I am really trying to get across. What I really want to bring out here however is that our life is meant to be lived not given away. God gave us life so we can live it and not just keep it or store it up somewhere.
Here is the problem with ‘giving our lives to Christ’. Most people who have this mentality tend to fall into either of these 2 groups. The first group are those who claim with their mouths to have ‘given Christ their life’ but who then go behind and take it back by the way the live that life. They are the ones who live life as they please with no regard for the precepts and instructions of God (they place all the importance on the moment they ‘confessed Christ’ and have no regard for the period after that).
The second group are the ones who ‘give their life to Christ and refuse to do anything else with it. They prefer to leave it all to him so he could do it all for them (looking at this closely, most people here do it not out of love for God but rather out of fear of hell and a selfish desire to have him do things for them). Many people that live with this give-away mind-set refuse to really live life. They are the heavenly-conscious-earthly-irrelevant-people who have trusted their lives in God’s hand waiting for Jesus second coming and doing all they can to avoid the world, its people and its system so as not to get ‘corrupted’ with the sins of this world. They won’t go into politics, entertainment, business or anything. They are okay with just getting by….they sing ‘this world is not my own, I’m going home one day to meet my God’.
So its like 2 extreme positions. Those that are over-living and those that are not living at all. Once again, balance is our problem.
Really like Dr Myles Munroe said, there is indeed no greater burden than freedom as freedom requires the highest level of responsibility. Christ has bought us freedom. However, he didn’t pay the price of his life so that we can be dummies and robots for him, rather like the verse above said, he wants us to live our lives for him. See this…..he lived because of us and died/ gave his life FOR us so we can die to self first and then LIVE FOR him. Christ expects us to be responsible enough to live right, choose right and by our living, reveal his love and wisdom to the world, spread his gospel, all of which will eventually bring glory to his name.
So salvation is not an escape route from hell as some people view it, but rather a door into a new life of kingdom responsibility. God wants us to live life and do good works here on earth while we are at it. He didn’t ask us to receive him only to wait till when he’ll return to receive us, but rather that we should get busy living our lives to establish his kingdom here on earth. In essence, the essence of salvation is not so that you will make heaven but beyond that, that we should create heaven here on earth for others around us thereby leading them in the process to God.
Jesus instructed in Luke19:13b that we occupy till he comes. In other words he was saying get busy with living life! Jesus was telling you here not just to give your life to him, fold your arms and expect him to keep it for you only, but rather that you live your life, unleash your potentials, make impact, and Achieve Greatness.
Let me state it clearly again as I conclude. Giving your life to Christ and living your life for Christ really mean the same thing. I made that decision for him a while back and it is the best I’ve made so far and I stand by it. What I have tried to point out is the problem having a ‘give your life to’ mind-set creates. It produces Christians who are either living life in their own terms with no regard to God’s will and desire, or Christians who have decided to stay alive but stop living life because Jesus is coming soon. If you fall into any of the 2 camps, you need to get out now! Start living life and this time live it for him. To do that, you’ll have to ‘die’ to self first so you can begin to live for a greater cause (john12:24-25). Remember he lived first and then he died and now he lives for ever. So live for him on earth, be his representative, touch lives, make impact, create an heaven experience for those around you, invade the systems and take over them for God, bless your generation and leave your foot prints on the sand of time. Christ’s finished work avails you all these and more. To whom much is given much is expected…. Achieve greatness.
Soaga Afolabi Olusegun
@inspireda4

One of my favourite authors is Malcolm Gladwell. He is a terrific writer and I just love the way he writes his stuff. I recently stumbled upon his latest work I believe, which is David and Goliath and having read just the introductory chapter, I was amazed once again how he brought me to see another perspective on the famous bible tale of the dwarf who slayed the giant.
I’ll be doing something similar to that today with the story of joseph of the bible; the young Hebrew boy who went to a foreign land and was made a prime minister there, against all odds. Joseph is a good example of a man who rose from the gutter into stardom. A man who was one day a failure and the next a success. Who defiled all existing status quo and set new standards in a place he had no business being in the first place. An example we all in some way would love to pattern our lives after or at least pray to God to make of us as well.
Let me give a brief summarized story of joseph. First he was a boy his father loved but his brothers envied. Also he had a gift, a talent; he could dream dreams and give interpretations to them. Somethings led to some other things and his brothers envy went overboard to the extant they decided to sell him into slavery. And while in slavery, he rose up the ranks from being the new slave to being the steward in charge of all his master’s business. The bible didn’t really tell us how he did it; it only told us of the results his methods produced which was that his master saw that everything he place in Joe’s hands prospered. Hopefully by the end of this article, I’ll suggest what probably led to that. From his master’s house he found himself in prison for what he knew nothing about. And while in prison, from being the latest inmate, Joe became that prisoner that was trusted with the responsibility of being in charge of other prisoners (the lad was living like the warden). He rose again. How? We’ll soon find out.
Then on a faithful day, he was summoned by the king to INTERPRETE a dream. That night, Joe shaved his beards and prepared himself to meet the king. Then he interpreted the dream and ALSO gave a solution to the impending problem the country was about to face. And so he was made the prime minister.
Now that is only a summary. There are parts I didn’t emphasize. But growing up, we’ve always read this story and felt that the key to joseph’s success story was God’s favour. And so we pray a lot for favour. At other times, what we glean out from his story is how helpful gifts and talents could be. And so we pray for talents and abilities because as we say it ‘a man’s gift will make room for him’. Others find some other lessons that space and time won’t permit me to mention here. Now those stuffs are not wrong; but i don’t believe that’s all we can see from this story. I believe some crucial points are often not noticed or mentioned when Joe’s story is being said. Here are some:
First is his ability to recognize an opportunity and to make the most of it. When he was interpreting the butler’s dream, he didn’t have to shave but for a king, he had to look like he could provide a solution. He recognized the opportunity as a ticket into bigger stuffs and so he didn’t treat it lightly.
An opportunity well taken today will present us greater opportunities tomorrow.
Second which is my main point of emphasis is that he was an extra-miler. All he was required to do was interpret the dream of the king. But joseph having it engrained in his character to always go the extra mile and do more than what Is required, not only interpreted the dream but also, suggested a solution to the problem at hand. And so he was made prime minister not because he prayed and fasted; not even because he had the gift of interpreting dreams but more because he had a culture of going the extra mile.
That was probably his method at Potiphar’s (his master) house and at the prison that made him get promoted the way he was when he was at those respective places. Talent is never enough for greatness, hard work and diligence must be mixed with it to produce greatness. God detest slothfulness and life rewards anyone who is willing to do more and give more. Ever wondered why people are paid extra for working over-time. They don’t just get paid extra, they are paid more per hour worked because it is a principle of life. And so if all you were to cover was 10 miles to get 100 percent, an extra 1 mile will not provide you an extra 10%; but rather, it could provide an extra 100 percent where possible.
Organizations world over are looking for employees who will not only do what they are paid to do, but rather over and above that. Those are the kind of people they employ and they are also the ones that get the promotions and pay raise whenever the opportunities arise. Ralph waldo Emerson said that if a man writes a better book, preaches a better sermon, sings a better song, or builds a better mouse trap than his neighbour; though he makes his home in the forest, the world would make a beaten path to his door step.
There are obviously other things we can learn from joseph’s story, but this one I believe is crucial. So I encourage that you do that extra today and see what tremendous magic it could do for you.
Love
Soaga Afolabi Olusegun

I am of the opinion which I believe should be generally accepted that those who flaunt and pride themselves in having great body statures usually have very undeveloped minds and as such possess very little to contribute intellectually to the improvement of the lives of those around them, and the community in which they live.
I would have been guilty of the fallacy of hasty generalization if I don’t say this: the reason for my thought is that we all tend to push our best assets out to the world to judge us by. So a lady who is content exposing every part of body to guys, leaving nothing for their imagination is simply doing that because it is the best she’s got. If they had better minds, it will be the first thing they want us to know and see. Of course the alpha males are not left out. If all a guy has to display is the muscles on his body, you can almost tell how shallow his mind probably is. Like I love to say, what shall it profit a man to have 6 packs and to lack sense in his brain.
I am not against looking good or body building, but I strongly believe that we owe it to those around us to make their lives more beautiful and that this can’t be achieved by merely feeding their eyes but rather by enriching their minds. And a mind which is not enriched cannot enrich another. It takes iron to sharpen iron.
And so if you will go ahead to beautify that gorgeous body of yours, take time to also pay attention to the quality of your mind. Don’t be like that fig tree jesus cursed because it produced leaves but ignored the more important thing being fruits. Good looks will fetch you people’s curiosity and attention but it takes a beautiful mind, strong character and a good heart to earn you love and respect. The question is, if people and opportunities should patronize because of your attraction, will they leave satisfied or dissapointed; the attention you are calling forth, can you handle it?
Dear lady or gentleman, people get attracted to looks, but fall in love with hearts. So whether its love or respect, wealth or greatness you are looking for, a beautiful mind will do you more good than a beautiful body will. My Bottomline today is…. develop your mind. period!

Soaga afolabi o
Inspireda4.wordpress.com

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Hi there, it’s a pleasure to have you again this New Year. The year promises great things ahead and it is my prayer that you and I partake of the greatness the year has to offer. My article today is long overdue. It was intended to be a New Year post but for some reasons it was delayed. None the less, here is it today.

Originally though, the contents of today’s piece were not intended to be a blog post but rather a tweet post of a couple of lessons I learnt in 2013 that I intend to apply in 2014 (i tweet @inspireda4). But the more I thought about the year, the more stuff I came up with.

I present them here in form of nuggets. These are the thoughts I have begun to run my year with. Take your time to read through, think well on them, and adopt that which is relevant to you. i usually pick a random thought like one of these nuggets and then build an article round it, but here i present several thoughts in simple and understanding terms and i hope you find them worth while.So we begin:

Don’t seek to change; seek to be better

Live by your convictions

Be true to yourself

Up your game or be history.

It isn’t mere repetition that creates perfection. If you keep doing things wrongly; all you will be is ‘perfectly wrong’

Certain things are best done with people, others are best done alone. Staying ahead requires knowing which one best suits your present circumstance.

My failures of yesterday is part of my success today. Because by getting it wrong then, i discovered successfully another way how certain things should not be done

Nobody is really better than me; i only have people who have put more efforts and done more than i have; thus accomplishing more. And in truth, what they have done, i also can and even better

Greatness isn’t achieved when you impress people but rather when you impact them.

Opportunities are like ‘classy chicks’. When they are available for grabs, they will offer you signals, but they won’t come to you. It is left to you to woo them over and grab them while they last. And remember, they won’t linger for ever

Whether i win or lose is not a matter of how good my opponent is but rather how good i am and how good i can become before the match

The opportunity of a life time must be taken in the life time of the opportunity………Paul Adefarasin

Be Selfless: the opposite of love isn’t Hate, but selfishness.

Pointing fingers is one of the easiest things to do, it is also one of the lamest I know. Quit the blame game.

Generosity is the way forward. We give up to go up.

Take care of what is yours or it will be taken from your care

Avoid debts, too much of it can kill you

Don’t trust yourself too much. Remember you are still human and you are’nt above mistakes

Not all that glitters is gold. Don’t seek to have everything. That is greed.

Breed love. You can’t go wrong loving people.

Live your life

Unleash every potential

Make impact

Achieve Greatness

I am doing my best to allow all these principles guide my decisions and inform my actions. They are not novel to me and so its easier for me to do that. However, I’d recommend that you pick one or two that is most relevant to you and commit it to memory. As a man thinks, so does he act. It is one thing to make plans and decide on some action point, but to execute is more important. So pick one and execute and I believe it will make this year more beautiful for you.

My birthday is coming up soon, tuesday to be more precise. I look forward to not just a wonderful day, but a wonderful new year in my life. The countdown has started already and in view of this, I’ll love to share something very personal to me. It is like my personal mission statement. My thoughts With some extra commentaries under each main point. Count it as my birthday special!

Ponder upon them and I hope they make if not all, but some of the meaning they’ve made in my own life.

1.live your life!
stop living life like you are running somewhere.
Death shouldn’t be an escape plan like prison break.( Life isn’t a prison)
Jesus ordered us to occupy till he returns.
God is honored and pleased when we do something with our lives other than just keeping it.
if God has kept you alive, its because he wants you alive.
dont just exist, live. dont just attend life, participate. dont just pass through life, let it pass through you as well.
the only reason certain christians dont commit suicide is because they fear they’ll end in hell for it.
to enjoy life, you have to live it.
God isnt against you having fun. he only requests that you have the right kind.
boring and spiritual dont have the same meaning.
feel the rain on your skin, noone else can feel it for you.
its your life: be in charge of it.
If you don’t take charge of your life, someone else will do it for you. And trust me, they’ll do a bad job.
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2. unleash potentials!
you were made for a reason and you are well equipped for it.
discover yourself: the world wont do that for you.
dont make the graveyard richer than it is: choose to die empty.
not only can you not give what you dont have, you cant also give what you dont know you have.
true fulfillment lies not in what you do for yourself, but in what you do for others.
one of the best thing you can do for yourself is to do for others.
You were not created as a final-ity, but rather as a possibilty.
dont stop searching, dont stop becoming you.
we are not what we are, what we are we ought to be; to be who we really are, we have to become it.

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3. make impact!
do something.
build your ark- your act of random kindness.
if you ought to and you can, then you should.
impact is heavy, impact is felt.
what is it that you can be remembered for?
touch a heart, bless a life.
the world is counting on you, dont let her down.

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4. achieve greatness!
greatness is a product of impact.
greatness when inherited doesnt last, when achieved is sustained.
you were born to be great, choose not to be any less.
fulfilling purpose might be hectic, but it is always fun and rewarding.
no matter how crowded it might be at the top, there is always an extra space to accomodate you.(That is if you are interested)
Greatness is not to be wished, it is to be achieved.
Greatness might be boring at times, but it is always Most fulfilling and rewarding.

Like this:

Pro 4:7 Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.

Chokmah is hebrew word for wisdom. The word wisdom comes up 222 times in the entire bible (kjv), 53 of which are in the book of proverbs. It also occurred 50 times in the New Testament 11 of which are in the gospels 6 times in red ink (indicating that they were the exact words of Jesus. Himself).
One could write an entire text book on the subject and so I cannot possible do enough justice to it in this small piece. Its importance cannot be over emphasized. When we consider that quality of our life is a function of our beliefs and actions, and that our beliefs and actions are fruits of our thoughts and decisions, we also will begin to see what the wise man was saying here by calling wisdom the principal (most important) thing.
In Wesley’s commentary on this verse of the bible, he writes that wisdom should be gotten with all, even at the price of all. I also read somewhere recently that we should learn to empty our pockets to fill our heads; We’ll end up thanking ourselves for it. That makes perfect sense as Nothing is too much to pay for wisdom. Ignorance and foolishness are the most expensive possessions in the world but surprisingly poor people have them the most.
Another word for wisdom is good judgement. Ability to choose right. The bible says get wisdom. This is possibly because It is not in man’s default setting to be wise. Wisdom must be acquired.
One other thing I’ll love to stress here Is that to attain wisdom, we should always start with common sense. But it is popular say that even that common sense is not common, it also must be acquired.
In the end, the right option is usually obvious to all. The difference is that the wise man sees it before the consequences while the foolish waits to learn it in pain.(Prov22:3). Jesus said wisdom is justified of her children. Don’t wait till you are at crossroads before you go after wisdom. Just like friends, the best time to get wisdom is when you don’t need it.